The Storm: An Inner Reflection Essays -- Emotions Psychology Essays

The Storm An Inner ReflectionMemories are all we fuddle sometimes, but what if memories bring out unwished feelings? In Romesh Gunesekeras short base Ranvali, a young lady goes back to her fathers old holiday bungalow and begins to discover new feelings toward her beloved Communist father. The story is set in an idyllic bungalow in Ranvali, by the coast of India. Theorists such as Roland Barthes would argue that setting in modern narratives no overnight need meaning they simply are that is their meaning. (qtd in Chatman 145). However, in Ranvali, the storm that besieges the bungalow while the young lady is there clearly mimics her thoughts and gives the reader a greater sense of the familiar turmoil that she must be going through. It can thus be shown that the storm is an essential part of the setting that Gunesekera uses to extract certain feelings in the readers of Ranvali.In the story, the storm mimics the narrators inner turmoil at discovering new feelings about her father. But is the storm part of setting? Chatman makes a musical note between existents - characters and setting. For Chatman, setting sets the character off it is the place and collection of objects against which his actions and passions appropriately protrude (Chatman 134). The storm is part of the description of the place where the story unfolds. The memories of the narrators father, which may be considered the actions and passions within the story, emerge before and after the occurrence of the storm. The storm is thus part of the background to which the events in Ranvali occur. Chatman also gives three criteria for being a character - presence, being named and splendor (Chatman 139). The storm in Ranvali is clearly not explicitly... ...der is given a definite analogy to how she might be feeling. Gunesekeras use of this narrative device as distant to using the narrator to describe her emotions makes the reader sympathetic to the narrators plight in an almost unconscious way. Althou gh the storm is part of the setting, it subconsciously draws a connection to the narrators inner thoughts. The reader thus can imagine that a storm rages within her mind, with thoughts about her fathers idealism conflicting with her love for him. Without this narrative device of the storm, the story would have been much impoverished, as the final effect of Ranvali would have been much reduced. Works CitedChatman, Seymour, Existents Story and Discourse Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca Cornell UP, 1978. 131-145. Gunesekera, Romesh. Ranvali. Monkfish Moon. capital of the United Kingdom Granta, 1992 89-102.